Enrolling the Uninsured under National Health Reform

Panelists:

• Julie Appleby, reporter, Kaiser Health News (moderator)
• Stan Dorn, senior fellow, Health Policy Center, Urban Institute  
• Cindy Mann, director, Center for Medicaid and State Operations, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; former executive director, Center for Children and Families,  Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute
• Mark McClellan, director, Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform, Brookings Institution; former administrator, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

The national health reform legislation’s most basic objective may be covering the uninsured. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that 60 percent of the uninsured will gain coverage once the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), the largest health coverage expansion since the 1960s and perhaps the largest in history, is fully phased in.

Some recent federal health reforms, such as insurance subsidies for laid-off workers, fell far short of their enrollment goals. Others, such as low-income subsidies for Medicare prescription drug coverage, exceeded expectations. Will the ACA reach its target population? How can the federal government help uninsured Americans sign up for health coverage? What stands in the way?

Top experts will analyze past successes and failures, key features of the ACA, and the policy choices facing federal officials as they decide how to implement the new law.